Amid all the buzz surrounding AI, it’s no wonder I’ve met plenty of less tech-savvy marketers who assume AI can now do everything. In reality, it still has clear limits, and smart marketers will pair AI with their existing tools to — as the mechanic’s saying goes — use the right tool for the right job. A good starting point is to separate AI from automation, which are frequently mixed up because they can look similar on the surface. Automation works like an if/then rule. People define conditions and, when those conditions are met, the system responds in a specific way. It’s the digital equivalent of telling store cashiers: if three or more customers are waiting in your line, pick up the intercom and call for backup. Dig deeper: The free AI tool that reveals messaging gaps on your site In marketing, a simple example is a paid search campaign with a $100 daily budget cap. The exact setup depends on the platform, but you can create rules to check spend every hour and, once it hits or passes $100, automatically pause the campaign and notify you. After that, you don’t have to manually monitor spend each hour — the automation does it and reacts when the threshold is reached. Marketers have relied on this kind of automation for years. Faux human intelligence vs. genuine human insight Still, AI is…